Breaking News

Editorials

Armstead was an example to W.Va.

“He set an example of honesty, integrity, faith and service that was second to none. He was an example of leadership with grace, a man who had a deep faith in God, and loved his family with all of his heart.” Those words from State Senate President Randy E. Smith, R-Preston, must be close to what leapt to many West Virginians’ minds when they learned of the passing of State Supreme Court of Appeals Justice Tim Armstead Tuesday. Armstead was a state legislator for 20 years — minority leader from 2007 to 2014 and then Speaker of the House for four years as he very capably led ...

Be careful around school buses

School is already in session for many students in Ohio and West Virginia. With the beginning of the school year comes the return of school buses and students riding them. Get back in the mindset of giving yourself plenty of time to get to your destination during pick-up and drop-off hours. School buses may be a little slower and make frequent stops, but the drivers are not out to get you, personally. Their job is to make sure kids get to and from school safely. And they can do that because (most) drivers follow a few rules. Never pass a bus while the stop arm is extended and the red ...

Improvements at park a good beginning

While not nearly as large in scale as had originally been hoped, it is good to see the first phase of improvements at Marland Heights Park approaching its end. Members of the Weirton Board of Parks and Recreation have been looking at upgrades to the park in recent years, with funding being a major stumbling block, both to forward movement and to the size of the work planned. What had originally included plans for a new, all-season shelter was scaled down to a new restroom facility. New lighting has been added, with some of the pathways through the park updated and new water lines ...

Gee continues to serve

Ohio State University isn’t letting its former President E. Gordon Gee rest for long, after his departure as president of West Virginia University. They’ve asked him to return to Columbus for a one-year consulting role. According to a report by The Columbus Dispatch, that role will include working with OSU’s new Salmon P. Chase Center to recruit faculty and increase the center’s presence on campus and nationally. Chase was Abraham Lincoln’s secretary of the treasury and later the sixth chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, serving in that role until his death in 1873. ...

The water bill will come due, eventually

Not long ago, Weirton’s water system – and the people it serves - went through one of the worst winters in its history, with hundreds of line breaks and numerous water outages over a period of several weeks. People weren’t happy, and, eventually, the complaints found their way to the West Virginia Public Service Commission which held a public hearing in Weirton and launched its own studies of the system. Among its findings, the PSC ruled Weirton’s storage tank capacity is not sufficient enough to meet requirements of the city, that approximately 40 percent of the water lines ...

Keep up fight against opioid scourge

As West Virginians have waded through the battle against the substance abuse epidemic over the past several years, it has become clear there is fault to find at many levels — from “legal” drug dealers masquerading as doctors to pharmaceutical industry giants. That is, of course, in addition to the illegal drug operations that realized what was happening and seized the moment. As state attorney general, Gov. Patrick Morrisey did an excellent job battling companies such as Johnson and Johnson, CVS and Kroger — to name a few — in an effort that has yielded hundreds upon hundreds ...